Heard on The Judges: "bartend(e)ress"

[Laurence Horn]

At 4:56 PM -0800 1/27/09, James A. Landau <JJJRLandau at netscape.com> wrote:
>This past weekend the Screen Actors' Guild gave out its awards,
>including "Best Female Actor", so we have to assume it is now
>official.
>
>However, despite people's desire to be hip and the attraction of
>novel ways of saying things, there is immense conservatism in
>language.  The word "actress" has been in wide usage for ever;
>however much you might wish it to go away, it won't.
>
>Another word that will stick around for the same reason is "waitress".
>
>On the other "bartendress" is a new word that hasn't been around
>long or been in wide circulation.  I predict it will soon vanish
>into oblivion, to get resurrected every few years and still not
>catch on.
>
>Why the persistence of "actress" even though cross-gender roles are
>traditional (as in the move "Shakespeare in Love")?  Because people,
>of any gender, react differently to a man on stage as opposed to a
>woman.  Similarly, customers at a restaurant or cocktail lounge have
>different reactions to a male or a female waitperson.

Somehow I'm reminded of Fowler's argument for why we need to
establish the lexical item "doctoress", on the grounds that "Everyone
knows the inconvenience of being uncertain whether a
doctor is a man or a woman; hesitation in establishing the word
doctoress is amazing in a people regarded as nothing if not
practical".  Fowler also pushed for "editress" and "inspectress" on
the same grounds.

Evidently, we don't find such uncertainty all *that* inconvenient
after all, and I think we might gradually come to feel the same about
our servers in bars and restaurants.

LH

P.S.  Shout-out to Dennis Baron, whose book _Language and Gender_ is
the first place I recall coming across that Fowler quote.

>  Unless you are actually at the bar, you don't see the bartender, so
>the gender of the drink-mixer is of less importance.  Also
>historically it has been rare for a woman to tend bar, whereas
>waitresses have been around for a long time.
>
>There is somewhat of a pattern here.  To past generations the sex of
>the person doing a job was important, hance gender-distinct
>occupational titles like waitress/waiter.  Nowadays we are much more
>accustomed to unisex job roles, so we don't have nearly as much a
>tendency to create words like "waitress".  Hence my prediction that
>"bartendress" will be forgotten.
>
>However, there are exceptions, such as "bachelorette" where we
>already have the word "spinster".  But then "spinster" has negative
>connotations that "bachelorette" does not.
>
>For some reason I have a pet peeve against the word "spokeswoman".
>I think it's because whenever I hear a report that someone's
>"spokeswoman" said x, that I have a suspicion the reporter is trying
>to be dismissive by insisting on identifying the flack in question
>as a woman.  Come now, reporters, if you can't use "spokesperson",
>at least be old-fashioned and refer to a female flack as a
>"spokesman".
>
>"Aviatrix" has had an unusual history for a gender-specific term.
>First it did not come into existence until the 20th Century.
>Second, its temporary popularity was due to one G. P. Putnam
>(grandson of the founder of the publishing house).  Never heard of
>Mr. Putnam?  Surely you've heard of his wife, Amelia Earhart.
>Amelia Earhart Putnam had three public roles:  as an aviator/rix, as
>a leading feminist, and as a salesman (salesperson?) for Mr.
>Putnam's business ventures, including a line of luggage for air
>travelers that is still on the market today.
>
>            James A. Landau
>            test engineer
>            Northrop-Grumman Information Technology
>            8025 Black Horse Pike, Suite 300
>            West Atlantic City NJ 08232 USA
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